MIDLOTHIAN, VIRGINIA – Equal Justice America (EJA) and Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA) announced today a $10,000 grant award from the Texas Bar Foundation to fund two law student fellows to serve summer 2024 fellowships at TRLA meeting the civil legal needs of the underserved. 

Maryn Rolfson Taylor, a second-year law student at the University of Texas School of Law, will work with the Asylum Defense Project for TRLA clients.

She stated, “I have a wealth of experience working with marginalized populations. For 18 months, I engaged with and provided humanitarian service to impoverished people in Ecuador as a volunteer missionary, where I became fluent in Spanish. After that, I volunteered as a mentor and camp counselor for refugee children. This experience revealed my biases and privilege as I learned how to empower individuals oppressed due to their age and citizenship.

She added, “Last summer, I gained experience in family law, housing, immigration, and criminal law on a small legal team at The SAFE Alliance, a local domestic violence shelter. I am especially grateful for the extensive trainings I received and implemented there on the intersections of trauma with client communication, adolescence, and immigration.

Abigail Gutierrez, a first-year law student at the University of Texas Law School, will work with the Family Defense Project for TRLA clients.

She stated, “Prior to deciding to enroll in law school, I wanted to work with children and families. In my undergraduate neuroscience studies, I learned how critical the first few years of life are to brain development, and I was struck by the pervasive and lasting effects that traumatic experiences have on the brain and behavior.”

She added, “I began to intern with the Texas Alliance of Child and Family Services, which vastly expanded my understanding of the real issues that our child welfare system faces. Particularly, I was struck by the realities of the injustices that many low-income families are facing right now in Texas. It became apparent to me that so many families are without adequate representation or knowledge of their rights, leaving them vulnerable to the burdened child welfare system. I chose to attend law school to do what I could to mitigate this problem.”

EJA and TRLA are excited to fund, based on the generosity of the Texas Bar Foundation, these two skilled young women as they pursue careers in public interest law.

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Contact: Sam Rucobo, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, Public Relations Manager, srucobo@trla.org & Dan Ruben, Equal Justice America, Executive Director, dan@equaljusticeamerica.org.

Texas RioGrande Legal Aid provides free legal services to people who cannot afford an attorney in 68 southwestern counties, including the entire Texas-Mexico border. TRLA attorneys specialize in more than 45 areas of law, including disaster assistance, family, employment, landlord-tenant, housing, education, immigration, farmworker, and civil rights. TRLA also operates public defender programs that serve at least 10 Texas counties. Our hotline is open from 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (CST) Monday - Friday: (956)-996-TRLA (8752) or toll-free at (833) 329-TRLA (8752).

Texas Bar Foundation since its inception in 1965, the Texas Bar Foundation has awarded more than $25 million in grants to law-related programs. Supported by members of the State Bar of Texas, the Texas Bar Foundation is the nation's largest charitably funded bar foundation.

Equal Justice America in 2023, Equal Justice America celebrated 30 years of supporting future public interest lawyers. EJA has provided more than 6,000 law student fellowships, partnered with more than 700 legal aid societies and 100 law schools. EJA’s mission is to provide pro bono legal services to marginalized communities through funding fellowships to law students and recent law graduates to serve in legal aid societies to grow the next generation of public interest lawyers.